On the Lotto Belisol fan day last Saturday at Circuit Zolder Jurgen Van den Broeck talked to the press. The man from Morkhoven was very relaxed, he just had one week of complete rest for the first since a long time, sports director Herman Frison had assisted on that. Van den Broeck made a round-up of his season so far and talked about his plans for the further build-up to the Tour, which starts Saturday 29th of June on the French island Corsica. Yesterday Jurgen left for the Sierra Nevada for a new training camp.

Jurgen Van den Broeck: “I’m not satisfied with the first part of my season, I am with my condition, but not with the results. In the Volta a Catalunya it was my own fault, in the Vuelta al País Vasco I lost all chances after a crash and in the Tour de Romandie I wasn’t good enough on day one. Maybe it was the wrong choice that the training camp ended so close to the prologue in the Tour de Romandie. But still, I could save my GC afterwards. My time trial on Sunday was surprisingly well, I was amazed that I left some specialists behind me in the classification. If I’m in good condition and take the right position, I can set good times.”

In the meantime the Tour is getting closer. A few weeks ago Van den Broeck and Herman Frison went to Corsica to do a recon of the first three stages. VDB will also go to the Alps and Pyrenees. On the press conference he talked about his further preparation and his ambitions for the Tour.

Jurgen Van den Broeck: “Now I’m going to the Sierra Nevada again, for three weeks, then I’ll do a recon of the stages in the Alps and another time I’ll go to the Pyrenees. In June I’ll ride the Dauphiné and then I’m leaving again for the Sierra Nevada, two days before the national championship I’ll return to Belgium. While I’m in the Sierra Nevada I’ll follow the Giro. Bradley Wiggins plans to ride Giro and Tour. Aiming for two Grand Tours isn’t easy, especially if they follow so close. Maybe in the Tour somebody wants to take revenge. I won’t talk about the choice between Wiggins or Chris Froome as a leader, we’ll see how it all goes in July. In Romandie of course I noticed that Froome is good.”

“I have already become fourth in the Tour two times, so right next to the podium. This means the top three is possible. But every Tour is different and hard to predict, you can become seventh or third with the same condition. You can only train hard, get to the start fine and then give full gas and see where you finish. The last time trial seems to be a tough one, but you can also win or lose the Tour in the mountains. In three weeks time I’ll do a recon of the time trials. Anyhow, you can’t plan the Tour beforehand.”